The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-27
Dairy Notes.

Cabbages and turnips for mich cows
should be cooked and fed after milking,
30 as not to injnre the favor of the
milk.
The safest and quickest way to dry
up COW is to feed moderately with dry
feed and leave back part of the milk at
each milking.
Dairymen should keep careful record
of the cost of each COW by which they
can determine which arc best to keep and
which should be sold.
The milk of the average good cow for
year is estimated rs equal in feeding
value to the meat of one and half
1,50O-pound steers Give weight, the
calculation being based on 1-2 pounds
of milk as equal in feeding to one pound
of boneless beef.
Great care should be taken with
heifers with their first calf. The length
of time COW will give milk is very
largely determined by the time she goes
and the first year she is MIXED If dried
up early, because she gives only little
milk, or is hard to pilk, in subsequent
years about the time no matter how much
she is giving or how we'll she is fed, she
viii dry up.
What is milk2 1t is fluid, usually
about eighty-seven per cent. water, with
about thirteen per cent. of substances of
value as food, called the solids of milk,
either dissolved in it or held in suspen-
sion. The water is essential to its for
nation and existence as milk, and yet it
has no commercial or economic value
This is altogether in the solids, which
consist chiefly of fat (butter), casein
(chccsel, milk. sugar, and certain salts
found in the ash when milk is burned.
The more solids and the less water milk
contains, the more valuable it is. The
more fat it contains, the richer it is; the
term richness having by usage come to
refer to the amount of oil or fat which
exhibits itself as cream or as butter.
This is the most valuable part of milk
commercially, yet as food the other
solids, particularly the casein, have
greater value. The special value of the
fats of milk, aud the fact that the most
profitable use of milk is in the produc-
tion of butter, have led people to esti-
mate the value of milk by its percentage
Of fat. Thus, milk containing five pc,
cent. of fat is worth twice as much as
milk containing only two and one-hali
per cent, and this difference between
the milk of different COWS, and even be-
tween that Of different herds, is not ex
treme.
With butter in the granular form, salt
ing and working are easily done. Let
the water thoroughly drain off, keeping
the temperature Of the butter down tc
fifty-fve degrees, or below, then sprinkle
on the salt and carefully stir it in. In
small patches it may be done by agitat.
ing the churn. If the batch is large j,
may be taken out and placed on butter
table. Then the salt can be sprinklcd
on and carefully stirred in with q con-
mon hay rake. If the salt is right it will
soon dissolve, and cover every particle
with a sparkling brine. 1t is then as
evenly salted as it is possible to get it.
No working is required. The mass may
be carefully pressed together in solid
form, or it may be put together into the
tub and pressed together there, as it is
packed, but none but the purest sail
should be used. 1t should be fine and
even grained, but not dust, nor half salt
dust mixed with it. 1t should readily
and rapidly dissolve, and, being even
grained, it will all be dissolved at the
came time and secure an even sailing Of
the batch. All coarse, grained;